The future of Argentine citizenship: why DNU 366/2025 faces serious constitutional questions

Access to Argentine citizenship is going through one of the most relevant constitutional debates in recent years. Two recent judicial decisions put the Decree of Necessity and Urgency 366/2025through which the Executive Branch modified the regime for access to nationality and transferred the process from the federal courts to the National Migration Directorate.

The rulings that question the DNU

The first precedent was the failure of the Room III of the Federal Chamber in the case «Volosh» which declared the decree unconstitutional, considering that there were no exceptional circumstances that would enable a DNU.

Days later, the National Electoral Chamberin the cause «Which» deepened this criterion by declaring the nullity of the norm on the grounds that it regulated a matter expressly prohibited by the Constitution. The central argument is that citizenship affects political rights and the electoral sphere, matters that cannot be modified by decree.

The guarantees that are lost

The courts indicated that the new administrative procedure eliminates guarantees inherent to the judicial process. Among them are:

• The intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office
• He control of an independent judge
• The affectation of due process
• The violation of the division of powers

The current scenario: a weakened decree

Currently, the decree is extremely weakened. This situation is aggravated by serious operational deficiencies and notorious delays in the processing of applications before Immigration.

In this context, starting the process through administrative channels may imply a situation of great lack of protection for the applicant. This becomes especially critical in those cases where people register trips abroad.

What strategy should be followed?

The procedural strategy must be evaluated individually in each case. However, recent pronouncements strengthen the arguments to promote citizenship applications through judicial means.

This option allows:

• Promote the control of constitutionality of DNU 366/2025 in the specific case
• Ensure that the process is carried out under the guarantees of the judicial process
• Avoid uncertainty while the definitive scope of this reform continues to be defined

Judiciary of the Nation – Rulings